This week’s post is written by Missionary Dan Kroll, the One Africa Team liaison to Nigeria and Cameroon. He recently went back to Cameroon for a regional meeting with pastors from the Lutheran Church of Cameroon, Christ the King Lutheran Church of Nigeria, and All Saints Lutheran Church of Nigeria.
We’ve been pretty busy in Cameroon the past few months. We were there in October to discuss the Lutheran Church of Cameroon’s ministry plan and consider some of the changes they might want to make in the near future. There’s a lot of ministry happening there!
Missionary John Holtz also led a workshop on the topic of Dialogue Education, as a part of ongoing professional development courses that One Africa Team offers our mission partners in Africa through the Confessional Lutheran Institute (CLI). The course on Dialogue Education was eye-opening for the local pastors, many of whom had only rarely experienced anything other than learning by rote. In the midst of this workshop, somebody commented, “this changes everything!”
L-R: Rev. Israel and Rev. Ngalame of the Lutheran Church of Cameroon
Last month we went back to Cameroon to walk our partners through a Seminary Consultation, another branch of the CLI. The last few years have changed our partners’ worker training programs drastically. Because of security concerns, WELS professors are currently unable to visit Nigeria and Western Cameroon. Our Nigerian and Cameroonian brothers are the only feet on the ground. They receive support from OAT remotely.
The lack of face-to-face meeting time makes it more urgent than ever that their worker training programs are suitable to meet the needs of their church bodies. All six Seminary teachers – Edward Obi and Michael Egar from All Saints in Nigeria, Aniedi Udo and Idorenyin Udo from Christ the King in Nigeria as well as Israel Mesue and Gervase Ngalame from Cameroon – were trained in a WELS designed and operated worker training program. Our mission partners’ worker training programs now reflect a West African designed curriculum, tailor-made to serve people who are uniquely Cameroonians and Nigerian. We have been talking about handing things over to our brothers for over half a century. Now we are giving them some space to take responsibility.
Getting a good start to the day with a healthy breakfast
Starting in September of 2022 our mission partners in Nigeria and Cameroon will be teaching classes they have chosen for themselves, based on their experience and their own needs. They will be following their own schedule, and they themselves will have determined how to use the funds available to train their men well. It’s an exciting time for us here.
As we say in West Africa, “God is good…all the time.” We pray for God’s blessings on these men and those they will train. Until we come back to Cameroon, they will carry the gospel forward.
Missionary Dan Kroll lives in Malawi.
Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa
Hills to Conquer
Oh, the hills. How striking they were as Howie Mohlke, his wife Leslie, and I drove east from Lilongwe, Malawi down toward Lake Malawi.
So were the sloping tea fields and the hills and valleys in the Sondu area of western Kenya when I saw them a few weeks later with Anariko Onunda: stunning.
Tea fields span the slopes in Western Kenya for miles
Why tell you about hills?
From Flatlander to Hill Runner
For years I was a flatlander. I had not lived among hills since I was a vicar in Marrietta, Georgia (1990–1991), whether our family was in Illinois (1992–2001), Florida (2001–2015), or Minnesota (2015–2019).
I recently picked up my new U.S. passport from the U.S. embassy here in Lusaka. The complex sits atop one of Lusaka’s tallest hills. On many runs I look for it, gleaming in the morning sun.
the United States embassy in Lusaka
Lusaka’s hilltop embassy makes me think of friends and family I miss in the States, as much as I enjoy serving the Lord and you here in Africa.
True Stories, Well Told
September 20–29 I had the privilege of traveling from Lusaka to Malawi. There I met with six pastors of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa – Malawi Synod. Pastors Chumba, Macharenga, Mandevu, Mitengo, Mukhweya, Mulinga, and I studied African church history biography together as part of their formal continuing education.
Malawian pastors enrolled in the BDiv program
Since that week, each Malawian pastor in the course has sent me a story suitable for a 7–12-year-old, a story about a figure in Malawian church history.
In part, those projects are to help that pastor’s own family and congregation. In part, they are to help pastors in other countries in our Bachelor of Divinity (BDiv) cohort—pastors in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. And in part, all the pastors’ efforts to research and communicate “true stories, well told” (our motto for the week) about fascinating figures in their country’s church history are to help me.
The translation is, “true stories, well told”
Receiving the Crown of Life
It is not just that I am new to African, as well as African church history. More importantly, stories about important believers from different parts of Africa, once we collect and distribute them all to all our BDiv brothers, will allow them to teach each other about real-life faith and love.
Due to Covid-19 related issues, the twenty pastors in our cohort have not been able to meet yet face to face, though we began classes over a year ago. Pray with me that face-to-face classes for us all begin in 2022.
Back then to true stories, well told. Such stories not only have the potential to build up brotherhood, by God the Spirit’s power. They can break down super-tall hills, hills which so easily divide those whom God wants united: hills like time, distance, and cultural misunderstandings. These are stories where brothers can see trials our Father has sent in the past. These stories can connect us to believers in distant places and times.
Be faithful, even to the point of death,” good stories remind us—stories like those of some of Africa’s first martyrs for Christ, Perpetua, and Felicity, remind us. In our classes, we watched a video about them. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Jesus promises this to persecuted believers in ancient Smyrna and to us too.
Across the Rift
October 8-18 I traveled to Kenya to teach my BDiv level course. In both Malawi and Kenya, the pastors and I did not just talk history. We also discussed being faithful today, even to the point of death. We conferred about the confirmation classes which the pastors supervise and teach, and the steep hills young people climb as they learn to follow Christ.
dedication of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Kindu
One difference between the church history biography course in Malawi and the one in Kenya was that on October 10, before the class in Kenya started, I had the honor of preaching in Kenya for the consecration of the new building of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Ramba parish, served by Pastor Samwel Omondi. He translated my sermon from English into Luo. It was a joyful Christ-centered service, complete with the Lord’s Supper.
LC-MC Kenya Leader Rev. Mark Onunda and OAT MIssionary Dan Witte distribute communion to members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Kindu, Western Kenya
It was my first trip to Kenya, so I had much to learn. The pastors and I met in the shade of the center brick-and-grass open-air hut.
L-R: Pastors Mark Onunda, Owidi Osome, Dan Witte, Samwel Omondi, Richard Amayo
After the week’s class, Pastor Onunda drove me back up to Nairobi, a city even higher in elevation than Lusaka, and three times bigger.
On October 17 Pastor Onunda introduced me to part of his city congregation, a much smaller group than the rural congregation the previous Sunday. In Nairobi some Christians Pastor Onunda serves are starting to meet separately as a daughter congregation. Elders were leading the service of that new congregation the morning I visited.
The Great Rift Valley of Africa
The King of the Hill
Such outreach efforts, even for an experienced pastor, get bumpy. Make that hilly. Sometimes we all feel as if we are barely able to put one foot in front of another, trudging uphill. Demons, this dying world, even our own deadly flesh whisper “give up” when hilly slopes get steeper.
But our Lord said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). That’s true of both Nairobi and wherever you gather with other believers for word and sacrament. Someday even the mightiest mountains will fall. But not God’s promises of mercy to us in Christ crucified.
Kenya’s Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa
Jesus lives. We have been baptized into him.
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10).
Missionary Dan Witte lives in Lusaka
Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa
Befriend a Mission
Pastors in the United States spend a lot of time alone. They work alone to prepare sermons and Bible studies. They sit in their office getting themselves organized for meetings and various events. When a member drops in for an unannounced visit, most Pastors welcome the interruption. I feel the isolation even more acutely as a world missionary. There aren’t any church members that might drop in for a visit. I work remotely with the leaders of national churches across the continent of Africa.
That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to give an online presentation this month. The LWMS Central Office passed on my name to the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit part of the Befriend a Mission (BAM) program. The women of the circuit pray for the mission and missionary. They also and encourage him and his family in various ways for a period of two years. Their cards and gifts always seem to arrive at just the right moment.
I’d given a few online mission presentations before so I felt comfortable with the format. Any group can host a virtual world mission speaker regardless of their proximity to the Upper Midwest. The members of the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit gathered at Arizona Lutheran Academy in Phoenix, AZ. I gave my presentation from my living room in Lilongwe, Malawi. I was able to sleep in my own bed that night and preach the next morning.
Most WELS congregations have a reliable connection to the internet, a digital projector, and speakers on hand. The LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit used Zoom to host their online mission rally. Other platforms like Google Meet or Facebook live are viable alternatives. It’s vital to find someone who knows what they’re doing and get them to help you with the setup. It’s also important that they can also be there during the presentation in case things don’t go as planned. We ran into some minor audio glitches the day of the event. Nevertheless, I was able to field questions from both the live and virtual audience in attendance that day. They were able to hear me clearly.
Pastor Ben Foxen, the Spiritual Advisor to the Grand Canyon West Circuit, was a great help. He facilitated the connection with the WELS Missions Promotions Office and was my main point of contact. As a former world missionary, Pastor Foxen understands what my wife and I are facing here. He wrote me the following: “Seeing and hearing about your blessings and challenges and those of the people you serve reminded me of my times in Russia. The challenges were different in some ways, similar in others. The blessings of seeing God at work in the hearts of his people, though, are universal. Your presentation brought all that back for me.”
I am grateful for the friendship of the members of the LWMS Grand Canyon West Circuit. We are closely connected to each other through Christ (and the internet) as we carry out his Great Commission.
Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi and manages the Communications for One Africa Team
Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa
